- Joined
- Mar 6, 2007
- Messages
- 1,192
- Reaction score
- 9
- Points
- 38
- Location
- St.Joe/Kalamazoo Michigan
So, my family (aside my sister) and two of my good friends and I took our CCW class today. It was the NRA class, and unfortunately I have to say, I was incredibly unimpressed by the entire course. There was no communication between the instructors, between any of the instructors and the range we were at, or with anybody that works at the range with each other.
We rented pistols and bought ammo at the range for the class because we figured it would be the easiest route. Since we were doing this, we called ahead two weeks to make sure to reserve the pistols and the ammo for the class, as they said they would do this for us since the range works in conjunction with the NRA instructors for the course. Well, first of all, the instructors wanted us to start shooting at 9:00am and they didn't open the gun shop until after 10:00am even though they knew we were there. Then, the guys working in the gun shop knew nothing of our reservation and almost didn't have enough ammo for us to shoot the requirements during the course.
Then, once we got the guns,(they were Browning .22's, which my girlfriend's step dad has one exactly like them and I've never had it jam on me in hundreds of rounds), jammed the entire time. This really inhibited my girlfriend and my mother when it came to shooting. Half the time it jammed the instructors had to use a rod to get the shell out of the gun. For some reason the crappy guns translated into poor shooters in the eyes of the instructors and they kept giving my mother and girlfriend crap about their shooting, crowding them, pressuring them, and invading their space making them nervous while they were just trying to get the guns to cycle properly. It seemed like the instructors thought that my family was stupid for it, even though they were shooting really good groups 6"-7" at 15' for beginnger shooters.
Throughout the entire course, it felt like I was on a terrible road with big holes and dips with no way to avoid them or to slow down. It was so disjionted I think I spent more time rolling my eyes than doing anything else. None of the three instructors could ever decide who was going to teach the next section, or who was actually running things on the range. I was also approached during a break by an instructor, which we had every 30-45 minutes for 10 minutes to waste time because they had to fill 8 hours, who preceded to tell me about killing Vietnamese soldiers for the first time, in detail with what you see after you shoot them and go up to them and pat them down and see the insides of their bodies, and then pull out a picture of them with their family and look at it. I was APPALLED. It was completely uncalled for. It's not that I can't stomach tough things, but I was just standing there talking to my girlfriend and this guy walked up and just jumped right in. Then he said something about having to experience it in civilian life as well. I was like WTF just happened.
Another instructor spent a good deal of the time marketing his gunsmithing services. I felt that was also inappropriate.
I'm not really sure what else to say right now other than the class was a joke. I actually just sort of lost my train of thought, but yea. You get the jist of it. I feel some people were worse off learning about any sort of safety and handguns from these three stooges than they would have been on their own. These guys were just really full of themselves and also made loud, off topic, and some inappropriate comments the whole time during the course as well.
There was an attorney that came in and talked to us about the legal aspects of firearms for about an hour, and he actually did a really good job and I feel that his part was the most beneficial part of the course.
But I feel like the class was a joke and a big ad campaign for the NRA. And, I'm sorry but I have to say if those individuals are typical NRA members, I don't know if I want to join.
But yea, I probably just rambled, but I don't feel like proofreading, but yea. So thanks for reading my rant.
We rented pistols and bought ammo at the range for the class because we figured it would be the easiest route. Since we were doing this, we called ahead two weeks to make sure to reserve the pistols and the ammo for the class, as they said they would do this for us since the range works in conjunction with the NRA instructors for the course. Well, first of all, the instructors wanted us to start shooting at 9:00am and they didn't open the gun shop until after 10:00am even though they knew we were there. Then, the guys working in the gun shop knew nothing of our reservation and almost didn't have enough ammo for us to shoot the requirements during the course.
Then, once we got the guns,(they were Browning .22's, which my girlfriend's step dad has one exactly like them and I've never had it jam on me in hundreds of rounds), jammed the entire time. This really inhibited my girlfriend and my mother when it came to shooting. Half the time it jammed the instructors had to use a rod to get the shell out of the gun. For some reason the crappy guns translated into poor shooters in the eyes of the instructors and they kept giving my mother and girlfriend crap about their shooting, crowding them, pressuring them, and invading their space making them nervous while they were just trying to get the guns to cycle properly. It seemed like the instructors thought that my family was stupid for it, even though they were shooting really good groups 6"-7" at 15' for beginnger shooters.
Throughout the entire course, it felt like I was on a terrible road with big holes and dips with no way to avoid them or to slow down. It was so disjionted I think I spent more time rolling my eyes than doing anything else. None of the three instructors could ever decide who was going to teach the next section, or who was actually running things on the range. I was also approached during a break by an instructor, which we had every 30-45 minutes for 10 minutes to waste time because they had to fill 8 hours, who preceded to tell me about killing Vietnamese soldiers for the first time, in detail with what you see after you shoot them and go up to them and pat them down and see the insides of their bodies, and then pull out a picture of them with their family and look at it. I was APPALLED. It was completely uncalled for. It's not that I can't stomach tough things, but I was just standing there talking to my girlfriend and this guy walked up and just jumped right in. Then he said something about having to experience it in civilian life as well. I was like WTF just happened.
Another instructor spent a good deal of the time marketing his gunsmithing services. I felt that was also inappropriate.
I'm not really sure what else to say right now other than the class was a joke. I actually just sort of lost my train of thought, but yea. You get the jist of it. I feel some people were worse off learning about any sort of safety and handguns from these three stooges than they would have been on their own. These guys were just really full of themselves and also made loud, off topic, and some inappropriate comments the whole time during the course as well.
There was an attorney that came in and talked to us about the legal aspects of firearms for about an hour, and he actually did a really good job and I feel that his part was the most beneficial part of the course.
But I feel like the class was a joke and a big ad campaign for the NRA. And, I'm sorry but I have to say if those individuals are typical NRA members, I don't know if I want to join.
But yea, I probably just rambled, but I don't feel like proofreading, but yea. So thanks for reading my rant.
)
